RETAIL IN VR: WHAT MAKES A GOOD SHOPPING EXPERIENCE
This is the latest chapter in my new research series. Social Virtual Reality platforms are working to generate engaging experiences that draw people in and motivate them to return. It led me to wonder — what are the core elements what make humans feeling comfortable and stimulated and turns them into repeat visitors? I gave demos of social VR platforms to nine experts of spatial & social experience design and then asked them for their impressions. Read the study’s introduction here. You can also read part 2 on Owning the Narrative, part 3 on Who is this Space for? part 4 Place Creates the Rules of Behavior, part 5 Context is Comforting, and part 6 New people want to be hosted in Social VR
Since there are already retail destinations available to people among social VR platforms, I recruited people with retail experience to tour those worlds and give feedback. One of the participants in my study had ten years of experience in retail experience, as well as a Masters degree in Merchandising.
Overall, this retailer gave a ton of feedback about what would make the virtual stores more similar to the shopping experience that we encounter on a daily basis.
In the one social VR platform, she visited a store and started out by saying what felt odd to her. First, there was a lack of graphics or advertising on the wall of the store.
Even if there is a space where the displays were changing up and they’re more holographic, that would be neat. Futuristic. If they had ads for the stuff in there and those were changing, like stuff you see in Tokyo, that could be appealing.
Second, she wanted to be greeted when she entered a store. Even if it was only a screen or a chatbot, she found it ususual that she was utterly alone with the merchandise. (More on the desire to be hosted in social VR here).
And then, she reviewed to the actual items for sale, which in this case were items for people to wear. Each item was laid out on a white table and you can pick up each item and try it on. From her perspective, it was easy for people to find and pick up items, but beyond that, the shopping experience became more challenging. The separation of the item actually reminded her paradoxically of both a museum AND a garage sale rather than a standard retail space.
This is what reminded her of a museum:
In museums…each item is separate and you put a glass box around it. It reminds me of an exhibit, not a retail space.”
And, this is what brought a garage sale to mind:
“The only time you would see items merchandised [presented] like this is a garage sale….no rhyme or reason”
The virtual store she was visiting was not trying to be a museum or a garage sale. She had several recommendations about what would improve the shopping experience.
CATEGORIZE ITEMS IN A WAY THAT MAKES SENSE
The retailer couldn’t understand why items were placed next to each other and, and it bothered her. Even if the entire table contained hats, there were so many different types of styles of hats that there wasn’t enough of a narrative thread for the shopper.
Think about visual merchandising — making the product appealing to the consumer. Categorizing by color, or by what the product is intended for. They chose to put all of the masks together. Something I might do is put the pink mask next to the pink rose. Groups of colors are very appealing to consumers. It draws them to it. They want to look at it.
SHOPPING IS MORE THAN JUST THE CHOICE OF ITEMS
Changing up displays, using different color themes. A main round table is our main display. We change it every month to every six weeks. I usually pick a color scheme. It’s not super apparent in this one, but I’ll usually pick two dominant colors and complementary colors that go with it.
GET INTO THE MIND OF YOUR SHOPPERS
Trends in VR for fashion are probably way different than trends for fashion in real life, but having stuff that reflects things from popular culture that you are trying to do now… think about your demographic. Probably people who are into role playing stuff in real life; maybe they’re going to Renaissance fairs… so you have to think about fashion that would appeal to them. Maybe they want something that looks like a medieval king’s crown. Or corseted, hoop skirts.
THE POTENTIAL FOR SHOPPING IN VIRTUAL REALITY
This retailer could easily see the potential for shopping in VR to offer value to users. She would just approach it from a different perspective from the one that she viewed. Using the example of lighting, she loves really big windows with natural light. If she was going to create a shopping experience in VR, it would likely have a majority of natural light and then she’d add elements of track lighting in the glass displays and spotlights on the mannequins.
Though I suspect one reason she had so much feedback about lighting is because I gave her demos of other spaces that weren’t shopping oriented before she arrived in the store. It gave her a feeling of fluorescent lighting, which bothered her:
The first place we went into reminded me of office lighting and I was like… ‘who wants that’.
You’re reading here a level of detail that she’ll go to curate a shopping experience for users. I learned a lot about retail stores (and the importance of ceiling height!) by observing her demo this social VR platform’s recreation of one. She embodied the spirit of this entire research study because she represents someone who is an unqualified expert in her field. And, she had a variety of insights that VR creators can borrow to make their spaces more welcome and engaging.
I want to promote testing different VR spaces with people who come from different industries and perspectives. Contact me or join the mailing list via my website: www.extendedmind.io.
